Iriver seems pretty tight with MTV’s URGE music store here in the States, but that isn’t stopping parent company Reigncom from hooking up with a company called Juke On to launch an online music store of its own for the Korean market. Telecoms Korea is a little light on details like pricing, as well as whether or not the new “iriver plus3 online music store” uses PlaysForSure for its DRM or if subscriptions will be offered.

Cram any sort of retro game onto a machine clearly not designed to play it and you’ll probably color us impressed, and just as the off the wall Doominstallations, MIDIhacks, and Wolfenstein ports have gone down, Japan’s own JJ has struck a cord with vintage folk everywhere with his latest tweak. Reportedly, the hacker / entertainer re-wrote the actual operating system for a $999 Akai MPC-1000 drum machine, added a few features from the more expensive MPC-2500, and got the MIDI all setup precisely like he wanted — all to play a little musical Pong. Aside from the snazzy custom loading screen, the game itself looks to work fairly well, and also triggers samples of your choice to loop in the background while gaming. The good news is that the Pong upgrade will only set you back $30, but the bad news is that would require you to actually already own the Akai machine, and just in case your wallet can’t handle anymore abuse whatsoever after this past Monday, just click on through for a (gratis) YouTube demonstration.

We all know by now that Hello Kitty goes everywhere and gets everything she pleases, and when that sassy feline demands an iPod speaker dock that doubles as an alarm clock, well, she gets it. The KT4560 Hello Kitty Stereo Clock Radio handles more multitasking than most non-cute devices of its stature, and aside from eliciting countless grins from the pink and sparkly paint job, it also acts as an iPod docking station for dock-connecting units, channels video / pictures from video iPods onto your TV, sports the ability to wake you with tunes from your ‘Pod, and there’s even an aux input for those “other DAPs.” As expected, the LCD-faced clock also features an AM/FM radio, alarm functions, rotatable volume control, oh-so-loveable snooze button, and an iPod-totin’ cat atop the device. While we’re not sure how much you’ll end up laying down for this multifaceted gizmo, we can’t help but give props to the practicality.

It’s been quite awhile since a single camcorder, of all things, got as much hype as the elusive RED machine from Oakley founder Jim Jannard, but this mysterious beast is escaping the treacherous realm of vaporware and emerging into reality according to the man himself over at DVXuser. Aside from shooting HD footage at 60fps with those fine 11.4-megapixels, the all-aluminum cam is finally making its debut, and a few glamour shots of the first prototype, dubbed “Spike,” have now been released. It’s noted that actual production units will not sport a shiny finish (sorry, blingsters), and the official forums will open up tomorrow at RedUser.net. Ole Jim also mentioned that the machined prototype “should be operational” within days, and hopes to garner a good bit of attention at the next NAB expo. While the initial batch of $17,000 pre-orders are long gone, the firm just might take more orders for a small window of time in “early 2007,” but it’s shakily committing to a “May 31st” or earlier ship date for those lucky (and loaded) individuals already on that coveted list. Be sure to tag the links below for more very-not-fuzzy sneak peeks.

Q4 Technologies, a software company previously known for its gridmagic art package, is working on software to control Wowwee devices. Go-Robo, currently in beta, allows users to write commands for their Robosapien or similar device using either a graphical “building block” interface — for novices — or by employing GRIDscript, which is a proprietary programming language for advanced users. As it stands, the software allows you to control up six robots simultaneously via a user-supplied IR transmitter; hardly enough for you to wage that robotic uprising you’ve been planning, but it’s a start. The full version is expected to be available by spring time next year.

The “Ink Well” Award (and Portable Device of the Year) goes to the Sony Reader (pictured at right). With a slim, portable design, restrained feature set, breakthrough display and great battery life, the Reader was a bit of a sleeper from a company known for its audiovisual heritage. The product would benefit from better bitmap scaling, color, and a clip-on light like the “Itty Bitty” variety available for print books, but it represents the kind of smart design and well-integrated service that could have made the electronics giant a stronger competitor in the digital audio player market.

The “Big Ideas in Small Sound” Award goes to the Altec Lansing InMotion 500, the slim battery-powered speaker dock optimized for the iPod nano, and which is compatible with both generations of the popular digital audio player. Altec Lansing’s decision to use its own speaker technology for this paid off; it produces far superior sound to its closest competitor. Runners up include the Samsung K5, iriver clix, and the Samsung Helix/Pioneer Innoand the Coby MP-C341 Portable MP3 Boom Box.

It looks like one round in the ongoing tusslebetweenTomTom and Garmin has kind of, sort of drawn to a close, with a judge issuing a verdict in one of the two lawsuits filed over the past year in the US — although that hasn’t stopped both sides from claiming some form of victory. In this suit, US District Judge Barbara B. Crabb reportedly found that all five Garmin patents alleged to have been violated by TomTom are either invalid or were not in fact infinged upon by TomTom. That would seem to put an end to things (in this case, at least), but Garmin’s still sticking to its guns, claiming that it has won a “complete victory on TomTom patents” and is apparently planning further litigation against the Dutch company. For the time being, however, it looks like the lawsuit filed in Texas will be the main attraction this side of the Atlantic, although those across the pond still have a ringside seat of their own, with the TomTom/Garmin battle in The Hague still unresolved.

It seems that the scandal related to Apple backdating stock options has gotten a little more serious. According to the Financial Times, in 2001 Steve Jobs was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization of Apple’s board of directors, and it now appears that someone falsified board meeting records to make it look as if Jobs had received authorization for the grant. The Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing whether to take action against Apple and/or any of the individuals involved, though whether Jobs himself might potentially be in any legal hot water is unclear. Jobs returned all granted options to Apple before exercising them, which perhaps explains why the company issued a statement in October saying that an internal investigation had cleared him of any wrongdoing (the company did force a former CFO from its board). Whether the SEC decides to go after Apple, Jobs or anyone else at the company remains to be seen, but the FT notes that plenty of other CEOs have resigned in the wake of similar backdating scandals. You could argue that given how well Apple’s stock has done over the past year that even shareholders who feel cheated by what happened would rather own stock in a company helmed by Jobs than one without him, but rules are rules and if turns out that anyone at Apple broke the law it’s unlikely that the Feds will go easy on them.

Toshiba has launched its first second generation HD DVD player, the HD-A2, but the more fully featured HD-XA2 will not see daylight until 2007. We had expected to see the player this year, but a dealer’s post on AVS Forum indicates the first shipment isn’t expected to hit until January 3rd due to production delays. AV Watch confirms the player has been pushed back to January in Japan as well, while the rest of the world should still see this hardware later on in the year. DTV Tivo Dealer on AVS Forum also noted that while 1080p/24 playback — currently only an option in a couple of Blu-ray players — won’t make launch, he is “100% sure” a future firmware upgrade within a few months will add it as an option. That puts the $999 HD-XA2 on the longlist of next gen players with future firmware updates on the way, but we’d settle for it actually being available in the first place.

It appears Asus‘ long-standing U5 series is finally getting an entirely overdue refresh, but late is indeed better than never. The freshened up U5F sports a layout and enclosure quite similar to its W7J sibling, and is built around the Sonoma platform. Beneath the hood you’ll find an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 processor, 12.1-inch XGA monitor, 512MB of RAM, 80GB hard drive, Windows XP Home, built-in WiFi / Bluetooth, a dual-layer DVD burner, and Intel’s 945GM integrated graphics set. Aside from the VGA output, audio in / out, couple of USB 2.0 ports, and gigabit Ethernet jack, you just might notice Asus’ own “Splendid video intelligence technology” kicking out “improved contrast, brightness, and color saturation,” and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) should keep the snoopers at least somewhat at bay. This 3.1-pound ultraportable machine doesn’t yet carry a pricetag, but should be making its way to Chinese retailers real soon, but be sure you’re really down with those intimidating palm rest stickers before throwing down your loot.